Somewhere between the aspiration and Hollywood, is a gulf where many would-be filmmakers are lost. This blog is about recording my insights, mapping the progress and unearthing the truth along the way.

Getting what I came for,
C.M. Sanchez III
Film Student
Brooklyn, NY

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Prior to introducing the article and topic I just want to glaze over the fact that the last four months have been spent in near isolation figuring shit out. I've come away with a metaphysical zilch after having combed through Camut's "Myths of Sisyphus" and Campbell's "Hero with a Thousand Faces." I'm not certain if I'm supposed to have resolve now but I look back and realize I haven't read or written a whole lot of the very subject matter that got me on this track. Even watching movies has dimmed in its entertainment level because now more than ever the medium represents a far off world, dangerous yet beckoning.

Nevertheless, when looking elsewhere I find the same old elsewhere crap I'd rather not be attached to. Adapting to the maze of a life determined to the whole bootstrap business, do or die, seems my lot (to the chagrin of partner and family). If blogging is the least I can do that can be considered both an investment in trade research and public communication then let us embrace the absurdity of dreams and do it properly.

It's not that movies aren't a wonderful and rich medium full of inspiration and art and sentiment and with all the powers to bring the world together and remove the dividing lines, etc, etc. It's that the pursuit of money and the idolatry of glamor has promoted such excesses of spending for a handful of people to manipulate the public. The public tastes, being fabricated like votes being bought, do not exist.

There are ways, as shown in the article, of boiling down even splits in preference to singular choices because there must be a winner after all. And lets not forget the prevailing majority of white male seniors doing all the voting because diversity certainly isn't necessary when deciding the representative film of all films in a given year that underscores the state of public consciousness.

This is one wide circle jerk. And the lesson to absorb here, which is pretty amazing, is that circle-jerking is actually quite effective in achieving the classical intent. Fake it till you make it becomes circle-jerk till you're convinced its an orgy and so hot.

You see, Hollywood can't exist without fans and supporters. It's make-believe after all. Fans and supporters don't rally unless there's an obvious cause to rally for. The symptom of "obvious" is created when we appreciate the big to-dos of the manicured elite from afar. The illusions of elitism is perpetrated by the purchase of industries of projection - the publicists, the groomers, and so forth. Either way, it's the magic (see: the bullshit) of movie makers doing their thing.

We eat this up because we, the public, are in desperate need of an escape from the imprisonment of our own poverty. It's always been this way and poverty isn't strictly financial. The hardworking slave away for home and family, many having given up passions before they even discovered them. And although film-making is damned-hard work, the crew certainly doesn't end up in the Oscars.

If you look at shows like Madmen or House of Cards, you'll begin to appreciate a concept we all generally accept but likewise would rather avert our gaze from: the flow of power and influence is decided by the people who create the context. Publications, PR Firms, Event Coordinators, Photographers, spin-doctors all with a mass audience capable of doing no more than dancing to the tune because while the ideas of the public vary greatly, they carry no organization that can fully denounce the printed word - not when they have bills to pay and realities to escape from. The Oscars are not chosen by popular appeal, though the films themselves are often beautiful. The Oscars are the result of political war. The benefit of the whole damned circus is to give off the impression that Hollywood is an institution and we're all benefiting. But behind that parade of smiles is a bean counter and greed.

Takeaway: Try it out.
My fellow filmmakers, especially those like myself without two cents to rub together, seduced by the prospect and bewildered by the cold, bring your people together and make your own Oscars in your very solitary tier. Fill it with boos and sympathizers, some live music if you can procure the talented desperate of that persuasion and put out a press release to the local wordsmiths and your nearby college or town press. Make funny awards and provide sincere praise and if you make a recurring culture of it and honor your following then too might you one day find the power to manipulate culture to the tune of millions. It is the dream and consequence of our success. And it is not beyond the least of us.

About Me

I've worked too many jobs growing up that had no meaning and frankly the life before film-making is all a wash. I've never been tested the way I've been tested in this practice. And it's so not over.

I'm currently graduating with a B.F.A. in Creative Writing and a minor in Film. Was a thesis film away from a 2nd major in production and I'll probably always half regret not just doing it but without a matching education in micro-budget distribution and grass roots marketing, that 5-15 grand would have been a waste and a further burden added to my already steep student loans. Time to take it on the road.